<cutline_leadin>Another heartbreaker:</cutline_leadin> Lions running back Theo Riddick catches the winning 11-yard touchdown pass against Dolphins defensive back Reshad Jones with 29 seconds left in Sunday’s game at Detroit. It’s the second time this season the Dolphins have given up a winning touchdown in the final seconds of a game. CHARLES TRAINOR JR.MIAMI HERALD STAFF

<cutline_leadin>Another heartbreaker:</cutline_leadin> Lions running back Theo Riddick catches the winning 11-yard touchdown pass against Dolphins defensive back Reshad Jones with 29 seconds left in Sunday’s game at Detroit. It’s the second time this season the Dolphins have given up a winning touchdown in the final seconds of a game. CHARLES TRAINOR JR.MIAMI HERALD STAFF

DETROIT

The Dolphins can’t claim they weren’t warned. Mike Wallace was their oracle.

He saw Miami’s future — Sunday’s gut-wrenching 20-16 loss to the Lions — and tried to stop it from happening.

“In the huddle, I kept telling the offense, ‘We’ve got to kill this game,’” Wallace would later say.

Less than four minutes remained, and if the Dolphins could simply have picked up three more first downs, nothing that came before would have mattered.

And they were one first down away from wrapping up a Week 6 win against the Packers, only to come up short.

That’s why Wallace was intent on making amends Sunday.

The season is now more than half over, and the Dolphins wake up Monday as the 11th seed in the AFC playoff standings — needing wins and lots of help to end their six-year playoff drought.

And they have little time to regroup. The Dolphins host the Bills — winners of three in a row against Miami — on Thursday.

Plenty needs to be fixed between now and then. A checklist:

1. Improve their red-zone offense. Miami scored just one touchdown on four trips inside Detroit’s 20, and Clay had a touchdown slip through his fingers with 4:30 remaining. (Clay said after the game: “It was a drop. There’s nothing else to say about it. You’ve got to find a way to come down with it.”)

2. Figure out how to run the ball when the read-option isn’t working. The Dolphins gained just 5 yards on two carries in their failed late-game attempt to drain the clock. A Tannehill third-down incompletion ultimately gave Detroit back the ball with 3:13 to play and one timeout.

3. Cover running backs and tight ends in end-of-game situations. Riddick slipped out of the backfield, turned around Reshad Jones and created just enough space for Stafford to rifle in the game-winner. (Stafford finished 25 of 40 for 280 yards with two touchdowns and an interception.)

“It was tough, man,” Jones later said. “They dialed up a good play. He made the play, and I didn’t.”

Stafford broke containment and kept the play alive, in part, because the Dolphins only rushed three players.

Still, it would be tough to assign too much blame to the defense, considering how little the offense did Sunday.

Miami’s only touchdown — a 3-yard hookup from Tannehill to Wallace — only happened because Dion Jordan returned Mitchell’s block to Detroit’s 3.

The Dolphins were outgained 351 to 222 on the day and averaged a paltry 3.7 yards per play. Plus they turned it over twice, including a fumble by Daniel Thomas on the first drive of the second half.

“It’s got to be in you,” Wallace said. “You’ve got to dig deep.

“We have the talent. We have the guys. We just have to want it more than they do. I think they wanted it a little more on that last drive.”